Bonding
by leafs nation
Summary: Lawrence decides that now would be a perfect time to develop a closer relationship with his highly-spirited daughter.


Lawrence Fletcher awoke as the first rays of the sun crept through the blinds of his window, signalling the start of a new day. He stretched his arms up and reached over to the dresser for his glasses, while trying not to awaken his wife, Linda. He gently gave her a quick peck on the cheek and slowly walked over to the bathroom to get freshened up.

After he'd had his 5 minute shower (he wasn't one for taking long showers) he walked over to his 2 sons' room.

He quietly opened the door and poked his head in, only to see Phineas and Ferb still sound asleep in their beds. 'That's peculiar,' he thought to himself, 'Usually they'd be up by now. Ah well, best let them sleep in for a change, I suppose.'

Lawrence slowly shut the door behind him and proceeded to walk over to his daughter's room. He was about to turn the knob when he felt a semi-aquatic mammal brush up against his leg.

"Oh, there you are, Perry," Lawrence cheerfully said to his pet, "I'll get you some food in a little bit, alright?"

Perry responded with his usual 'Kkkrrrr', as he couldn't exactly respond to Lawrence in English. Mr. Fletcher always wondered what it was exactly that Perry wanted to say, but he laughed when he had heard that the boys had built some sort of animal translator earlier this summer. He supposed that Perry just enjoyed his carefree life. After all, he was just a platypus. They don't do much.

Lawrence opened up the door to Candace's room to check on her, however she was nowhere to be found. He scratched his head in confusion and looked down at his watch that read 6:30 AM. It was no wonder why the boys weren't up yet, but Candace's unoccupied bed was indeed a mystery to him.

He figured that Candace would be downstairs, as there wasn't anywhere else that she could've been at this hour. He turned around to pick up Perry when he discovered that he too had disappeared. "I really need to stop eating all that chocolate before bed," Lawrence mumbled to himself.

The British fellow descended the staircase, making sure that none of the boys' blueprints were in his way. He really didn't feel like taking a trip to the hospital this morning for a broken leg.

As he turned the last corner into the kitchen, he spotted Candace leaning over a bowl of cereal; her one hand twirling the contents in a circle with her other resting her head. Lawrence was slightly concerned with the depressed look on his daughter's face, so he walked over to the kitchen counter.

"Good morning, Candace. Is everything all right? You're never up this early."

Candace acknowledged her father's presence with a wave, and then replied, "I'm fine- just couldn't sleep, I guess…"

Lawrence knew that Candace was most definitely not fine, so he started to make them both a cup of steaming hot tea. "Are you sure, darling? You know that you can tell me anything."

Candace sighed and twirled her food around some more. She figured that it would be best to talk to somebody other than her mother about this, so she opened up.

"It's the boys," she started, gratefully accepting the tea, "I know that I must seem like a crazed lunatic sometimes, but it's just- I just don't want them to get hurt, you know?"

Lawrence nodded his head and took a sip from his cup. "You know, I remember way back when Ferb and I lived in England, he would always build these amazing things out of the blocks that my previous wife and I gave him." Candace already knew about her father's deceased mother, so talking about her wasn't a big deal to her.

"He had such a vivid imagination, even at an early age. Eventually, he started taking things apart and putting them back together, like the toaster, the microwave…" Lawrence chuckled slightly as he reminisced. "And more recently I've seen what they could do, what with the monster trucks and the flying carpet…"

"Dad, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"I had a hunch that you were telling the truth, Candace. Well, except for the space missions and the rollercoaster thing, of course. I think they're a little young to be doing that," he broke out into a slight grin as he continued, "Did I ever tell you about when I saw the car after you said that the boys entered the derby? I found the remote that they created and pressed one of the buttons. I must have been launched about 50 feet into the air!"

Candace laughed slightly and shook her head. Her father always knew how to lighten the mood.

"Anyways, all that I'm saying is that I know that you're only trying to protect your brothers, and I'm grateful, but maybe you should try to have fun, too."

Candace groaned in frustration and complained, "Ugh, not this again. I've already been told this once before, Dad," she sighed in defeat before saying, "But maybe you're right. All of this busting is starting to make me paranoid I think, anyway."

Her father smiled at her and came to sit at the table with her. "You know, you're just like what your mother used to be," when Candace gave him a quizzical look he continued, "Linda was very high-spirited, and she always cared for others before herself. That's a big reason why I fell in love with her in the first place."

Lawrence thought he saw his daughter's expression soften for a minute, so he put a hand around her shoulder and whispered, "You're going to do amazing things, Candace. Never let anyone tell you otherwise."

That was just the thing that Candace needed to hear; something that would lift her spirits for the day (and quite possibly the whole week). She was very lucky to have such a caring father looking out for her.

She embraced her father and whispered, "Thanks, Dad."

Lawrence mumbled a "your welcome" and went to bring the dishes over to the sink. Before he got there, however, he heard a familiar "Kkkrrr" sound.

"Oh, there you are Perry," they both said simultaneously. As Lawrence started to scrub the dishes, he thought of doing another favour. Boy, was he feeling generous today.

"Candace, are you by any chance doing anything today?"

Candace thought for a second before shaking her head. "Nope, Stacy went to visit her relatives so she'll be gone for the week, and Jeremy is up north at camp. Why do you ask?"

Lawrence pulled out 2 tickets out of his back pocket and showed them to her. "Would you be interested in accompanying me to a Paisley Sideburn Brothers concert this afternoon?"

There were no words to describe the shock that Candace was experiencing right now. She didn't even think that her Dad knew about this band, much less actually enjoy their music.

Candace was about to say yes when she asked, "Shouldn't the rest of the family be coming too?"

Lawrence shook his head and replied, "Not today- Linda's taking the boys out to visit her old college friend. She has a couple of kids that are Phineas and Ferb's age, so she didn't think you'd want to go."

Excitement soon filled the 16 year old. A Paisley Sideburn Brothers concert? _Without _having to worry about what her brothers were doing? Could it really be true?

"Sounds great! What time is the concert at?" she asked.

"5:30. It's kind of early, but it's an outdoor concert so they wanted to start a bit early. Anyway, how about we go out for dinner at around 4:00 and then head over to watch them warm up afterwards?" her father asked, grateful that he was finally going to have some bonding time with his daughter.

Candace put on a big smile and answered with a cheery "yes", so her father walked back upstairs.

As Candace watched her father walk up the stairs, she pulled up her laptop and went on Fletcherbook (the one thing that Ferb built that Candace didn't consider completely dangerous) and thought about what to write as her status. After some heavy-duty thinking, she finally wrote:

_Going to a concert with my Dad- don't bother texting, I'll be having fun :D _

Candace grinned once more before logging out of her account and closing her laptop.

Okay, so that was my first Phineas and Ferb fanfic, and hopefully there'll be more to come. Hope you liked it!


End file.
